'Migration compact' merits 'serious consideration' says UN

(ANSA) - Brussels, April 26 - United Nations Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson said Tuesday that Italy's flagship 'migration compact' proposal to ease the asylum-seeker crisis by helping sub-Saharan countries of origin and transit is a "valid" idea that merits "serious consideration".
    "In my conversations I have heard it spoken of in positive terms," Eliasson said in an interview with Italian state broadcaster RAI. "I am not familiar with the details, but it certainly appears to be worth evaluating," he added. Eliasson, a former naval officer, also praised Italy's navy and coastguard authorities for their "fantastic" work in rescuing migrants trying to reach Europe's southern shores. "We know you have a very important function seeing as the European Union does not have a strong enough system of border control," he said. "This is one of the problems you have generally on migration," he continued.
    "I don't want to interfere in EU internal affairs, but I would hope for a combination of more ordered traffic from source countries, with the possibility of entering by legal channels, and sufficiently incisive control of the external border so as to be able to preserve the Schengen agreement (on the free movement of goods and people)," Eliasson said.